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"Come live with me, and be my love, And we will some new pleasures prove Of golden sands, and crystal brooks, With silken lines, and silver hooks."
-John Donne, "The Bait"

Chapter 2.


“How could you do it? It’s supposed to be your sacred duty to rid this world of scum like that – you helped that bloodthirsty monster escape.”

Buffy flinched as the words struck home.

“My father’s life’s work – my life’s work – all wasted. All the planning for so many years – I had the vampire in my grasp and you freed it! And as for you…”

Mills suddenly darted forward and smashed the barrel of the gun against Giles’ head, but before Buffy could react, had retreated to pacing up and down on the other side of the room. He continued his tirade as if nothing had happened.

“…my father paid for your education, your training, and this is how you repay his generosity! They had better find the vampire and bring it back, or, or – no they have to find it. I haven’t nearly finished its punishment!”

Buffy looked across at her watcher anxiously as he put his handcuffed hands to his face, feeling the extent of his injury.

“I’m all right.” He said unsteadily.

“I’m so sorry Giles,” she whispered, “if only I had dusted Spike yesterday (was it only yesterday?) None of this would have happened.”

“Rubbish!” He said shortly, “That would have meant lowering yourself to this maniac’s level.”

Buffy went back to watching the madman, waiting for any chance to attack him. She surreptitiously tugged at the chain binding her wrists together, but it stubbornly refused to break. They were both aware of the time passing; surely they would have found Spike by now if he had survived? Neither wanted to think what would happen if the vampire wasn’t returned.

The four men clustered outside the front door. One of them said, “Are we agreed then? We didn’t see the vampire after he crashed through the window, okay?” The others shuffled their feet and nodded. The first man took a deep breath and opened the door, and the muffled shouting suddenly became clear, “….. They have to find it. I haven’t nearly finished its punishment!”

They saw the girl and her Watcher, sitting on the couch on the far side of the room, both looking tense but unafraid. Mills was pacing back and forth waving a pistol in his hand, “Well Cahill, where is it?”

Cahill cleared his throat nervously, “I don’t think it survived Boss, we couldn’t find any trace of it and we scoured the woods good and proper.”

Mills gave an unearthly howl and swung round, “You will pay for this, you bitch!” brought up his hand and aimed the gun straight at Buffy.

The front door slammed open and a platinum-haired figure threw itself at the four guards, howling with rage and pain. Two of them went down, but the other two grabbed the newcomer’s hands as they clutched his head, and wrenched them behind his back.

“Spike!” Buffy gasped “Where the hell did you come from?”

Mills was crowing with glee, as he saw the vampire being held helpless and at his mercy.

“I always knew that vampires were stupid, this one is even more stupid than I thought – did you think that you could take all five of us?”

Suddenly there was a crash from the kitchen, and Mills motioned the two thugs that were not holding Spike, to go and investigate. He raised the gun again and aimed at the blonde, “I’ll make you pay for causing me all this trouble.”

“That’s not going to kill me, Spike managed a smirk.

“No I know it won’t, but it will hurt like hell.”

The millionaire squeezed the trigger twice and Spike was hurled back into the wall, along with the two men holding him. One of the men hit his head as he fell, the other was trapped under Spike, and Buffy took the opportunity to fling herself at Mills, who had allowed himself to be distracted. She chopped at his wrist, the gun fell to the floor and she kicked it towards Giles. She hit the madman on the chin with her two fists and he crumpled to the ground. Giles darted over and snatched up the gun, then started to search the fallen man for the keys to the handcuffs.

Buffy went over to where Spike lay, absently punched the guard who was trying to disentangle himself, and knelt by the vampire. His pain filled eyes were open and he smiled crookedly up at her, “Come dance with me and be my love.” He whispered, then his eyes rolled up and he fainted.

{“You think we’re dancing?”}

{“It’s all we ever do”}

“How lovely. Misquote, but still….”

Buffy gave an unslayer-like yelp and twisted round, her hand over her rapidly beating heart.

“Oh, I’m sorry my dear, didn’t mean to startle you.” The housekeeper smiled from the kitchen door.

Buffy recovered rapidly, “What happened to the two men who went into the kitchen?”

“Oh, I dealt with them.” Mrs Norton said calmly, and then saw the worried look on Buffy’s face and gestured towards the two unmoving forms on the floor, “Don’t worry, they are only asleep; it’s a very handy spell to have – used to work on Mr Norton when he came home from the pub on Friday nights, drunk out of his skull… but that’s another story.” For the first time Buffy saw Mrs Norton flustered.

“I think I’ll use it on the others, so that they only wake up when we want them to.” She said quickly and walked over to the two guards, mumbled some words and tapped them on the shoulder. Then she went over to where Giles was still searching Mills’ pockets, smiled at him and saying a few muttered words, touched the millionaire, who seemed to tremble for a second and then lapsed into snores. Giles grunted triumphantly as he found the key, and freeing his hands took it over to Buffy. She absently freed her own hands, and looked down at the semi-conscious vampire,

“We have to see to his wounds.” She said

“If you’ll help me upstairs with him, I’ll deal with that.” the housekeeper smiled at them, ”Don’t worry, I used to be a nurse – among other things.”

“That woman never ceases to amaze me,” muttered Giles.

Buffy half carried Spike up to the bathroom, gently helping him sit on the floor, with his back braced against the bathtub.

“Thanks, you had better go and help your Watcher plan a way out of this; I don’t think that even I can explain five unconscious men away!” Mrs Norton chuckled and ushered Buffy out of the door.

Buffy got half way down the stairs, before she remembered the cut on Giles’ head, so she turned and made her way back to the bathroom.

“Bloody hell, did I say that? I must have sounded like a right sodding poofter!”

Buffy hesitated outside the door.

“Why didn’t you stick to the plan, you stupid vampire – hold still, I’ll have to dig this one out.”

“I like to make an entrance luv, not that I don’t usually of course, what with my good looks and…. Owwww!”

“I told you to keep still. There I’ve got it. Do you want to keep it as a souvenir?”

“Oh yeah, souvenir of my lovely holiday in England, nearly getting killed every day for sodding weeks, yeah, I think I’ll have it framed.”

“If you had waited for a few seconds more, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“If I’d have waited a few seconds more, we’d have been short of one Slayer, and gained one royally pissed off Watcher!”

“Are you going to tell her you love her?”

“What!”

What! Echoed Buffy on the other side of the door.

“Do you think I’ve completely fallen off my perch? I tried to tell her a few weeks ago - she let me know in no uncertain terms what she thinks of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve only loved three women in my long life, two of them told me I’m beneath them, and the other is totally loony – what can I say, I haven’t exactly got the best track record.”

“Don’t just try to tell her – tell her, what’s the worst she can do?”

“Uh, luv, she’s the Slayer & I’m a vampire – do I have to draw you a diagram? Anyway, she’s right, I am beneath her, she deserves better.”

“She actually said that? Well, and I thought she was a nice girl.”

Buffy winced, and then realised that at any moment, they would be coming out of the door. She shot downstairs, and was able to look as though she was just coming up them, when they appeared on the landing.

“Um, I was just coming up for something for Giles’ head,” she said feebly.

“Nice big brown paper bag would do it.” Spike smirked at her.

“Shut up Spike,” both women said simultaneously.

“Would you help him downstairs? I’ll clean up in here and then I’ll bring down a bandage for Mr Giles.” Mrs Norton said, placing Spike’s arm over the Slayer’s shoulders.

“Okay.” “There’s no need.” They said together.

Buffy tightened her grip on Spike’s arm, so that he had to accept her help or wrestle with her, and at that moment he felt so tired that he suddenly didn’t care, as long as he was able to sit down sometime soon.

When they reached the sitting room, Buffy helped the vampire to the sofa and he slumped down bonelessly, closing his eyes with a groan. She looked at him and felt a burning sensation in her chest, how dare he talk about her like that, and to a complete stranger? He couldn’t be in love, he didn’t know what love was, the soulless, bloodsucking, evil…

“Buffy, um, BUFFY!”

She realised that Giles had been trying to attract her attention for some time.

“Uh, sorry Giles, I was miles away.”

“Yes, I could see that. I have contacted the Council, and they….”

“What! The Council? How could you Giles? They’re the ones who got us into this mess - if it hadn’t been for them we wouldn’t have met that maniac!”

“Please listen to what I have to say, and then you can criticise.” He sounded so tired and angry, that Buffy was suddenly ashamed of her outburst.

“Yeah, sorry Giles, it’s been kind of a long day and I’m not patience girl at the best of times.”

“Yes, we are all tired. Anyway, as I was saying, I contacted the Council and told them that if they wanted to avoid a scandal, then it is in their best interests to help us to get Spike back to the States.”

“You don’t have to bother with me Watcher; I can fend for myself – maybe stay in the old country for a while.” Spike said in a monotone.

“Oh no, that was one of the conditions for helping us, they want you out of England as soon as possible. I told them about the contacts I have with a certain newspaper and mentioned to them that it wouldn’t look good for the Council to be tied in with a lunatic millionaire, who kidnapped and tried to murder a couple of tourists. They agreed and are going to sort everything out; I don’t think that we will get any more trouble from Miles. They will bring a coffin with them, because, as Spike is already dead, we thought that it would be the best way of getting him out of the country - as a corpse.”

Neither of them heard Spike whisper, “No.”

“They may want to take the lid off the coffin, just to check, but as Spike doesn’t have a pulse and doesn’t need to breathe, there shouldn’t be any trouble.”

“NO!” Spike yelled leaping to his feet. He was out of the door and running towards the woods, before Buffy and Giles could react.





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